Footy tipsters left in the lurch

Phil Davis of the Giants competes for the ball against Lance Franklin of the Swans during the round one AFL match between the Greater Western Sydney Giants and the Sydney Swans at Spotless Stadium on March 15.
Photo: Getty

The crash of one of the nation’s largest footy tipping websites on the eve of the 2014 AFL season has left thousands of fans vying for cash prizes and ultimate office bragging rights confused and angry.

According to footytips.com.au it had more than 600,000 active footy tipping players on Friday morning. By the afternoon its website had crashed, leaving those with tips to lodge angry and frustrated and those that tipped ahead of the website’s crash confused about how their tips would be treated.

The website is used by many businesses to provide the technology to run office footy tipping competitions.

Its fans forum was inundated with unhappy tipsters.

“My league members are putting money on the line so I want it done fairly and correctly," complained one user on Sunday.

Another said: “a resolution from footytips.com.au is overdue and required!"

Victorian Treasurer
Michael O’Brien
tweeted on Friday night: “Workplace productivity across Victoria in jeopardy if people can’t get their tips in."

On its Facebook page, footytips.com.au told fans on Saturday its website was back up and running after its technicians worked through the night to resolve “hardware issues".

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On Monday morning footytips.com.au was still pleading with fans through twitter for patience.

“Just to reiterate that we are still stabilising databases. We’ll let you know as soon as we have answers. Thanks for your understanding," the site’s official account tweeted.

The West Australian newspaper uses footytips.com.au for its competition, which promotes itself as WA’s richest with more than $300,000 in prizes on offer.

On its Facebook page over the weekend The West apologised to tipsters, blaming the host tipping site for crashing unexpectedly for several hours, and declaring that all tipsters would be given a correct tip for the round’s first four games regardless of whether tips were placed or not.

There was still confusion about how footytips.com.au would determine the weekend’s scores for its tipsters. An update on Saturday said it would alert tippers about scores on Monday.

The website’s crash also impacted tipping for the NRL competition.

“This is a shamble!" Dean Hardman wrote on footytips.com.au’s Facebook page.

The AFL’s first round was spilt over two weekends with a further five games to be played this weekend.

For The West’s tipping competition the perfect weekend score is likely to upset those rare individuals that actually recorded a tip for AFL newcomer Greater Western Sydney.

According to Sportsbet.com.au GWS had next to no hope of defeating premiership contender Sydney, which was paying just $1.02 for the win. GWS on the other hand was paying $14.

Yet GWS had a convincing win, defeating Sydney by 32 points. The match has been described as one of the biggest upsets in recent AFL history.